A handful of reports published over recent weeks by the US Government’s own Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) have revealed that coal and nuclear continue their decline across the country, while renewable energy continues to surge with longevity which will quickly take it out beyond the reach of the United States’ traditional generators.
Renewable energy sources accounted for a fifth of US power generation over the first third of 2018 according to new figures from the US Energy Information Administration, as coal dropped to 27% of total power generation.
Electricity generation from solar resources in the United States reached 77 million megawatthours (MWh) in 2017, surpassing for the first time annual generation from biomass resources, which generated 64 million MWh in 2017.
Federal subsidies for renewable energy—including biofuels for transportation use and renewable generation of electricity—dropped to $6.7 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2016, a 56% decline from FY 2013. Renewable subsidies in FY 2010 and FY 2013 were approximately $15 billion, more than double FY 2016 levels, as support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) lessened. Despite the decline, renewable energy continued to receive a large share of total federal energy subsidies, accounting for 46% of the FY 2016 total.
US coal exports rose by 61% in 2017 (by a total of 36.7 million short tons), largely on the back of increased shipments to Asia and steady shipments to Europe, going by the most recent figures released by the EIA.
The US Energy Information Administration this week published its official figures for electricity generation in 2017 and it confirms what most expected, that electricity generation from fossil fuels declined in 2017 at the same time that generation from renewables increased.
Episode #48 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers solar + storage nuking natural gas (peaker plants, that is), fantastic floating wind farm news, and the latest in fat-tire electric cycling!
The US Energy Information Administration has this week predicted that electricity generated from wind energy will surpass that from hydroelectricity, the previously-dominant renewable energy source in the US.
We have seen the fall of coal. The Dow Jones Coal Index, which stood at over 723 at its high in 2008, was down over 94% to 41.36 on December 8. Just as telling, all of the companies that were its components in 2008 have disappeared. There is now only one company in the index, and it is new, cobbled together out of the wreckage of those that once were.
New numbers from the US Energy Information Administration and highlighted by Ken Bossong’s Sun Day Campaign show that renewable electricity production through the first three quarters of 2017 was up 14.7%, while coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear power all decreased.
